


With Great Patience

by Alterius



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-12
Updated: 2019-01-12
Packaged: 2019-10-08 22:26:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17394830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alterius/pseuds/Alterius
Summary: “Nonsense. You stopped Noct from complaining this afternoon about the veggies I snuck into our meals the night before.”“Dude, Ishothim.”





	With Great Patience

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little thing I wrote a while back. I put off finalizing the editing, but I'm finally posting it. I just love writing banter, to be honest. Beta'd by my lovely [fiance](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lascivus/pseuds/Lascivus).

“I'm waiting for the right moment.”

It's a bullocks excuse and they’re both painfully aware of that fact. Only one person had remained oblivious to his affections and that was the man in question—and this road trip was doing him few favors where hiding it was concerned.

Much of the fault for that lie with Gladio and Noct, both of whom had evidently commissioned themselves to force a confession out of him. But their determination wouldn’t sway him. It couldn’t. Admitting to his unrequited crush wasn’t high on his list of priorities nor should it be on anyone else’s, especially considering what this journey was about.

“Specs, we've been counting. You've had at least three chances to say something.”

“ _ Must _ you exaggerate?”

“Hell yeah, if it gets you to  _ talk _ to him.”

Ignis can't help but roll his eyes at the prince’s antics, though the fault lie with him for not foreseeing this. After all, Prompto was Noctis’s best friend; it was only natural that he would try and persuade him to tell Prompto. Ignis couldn’t confidently say  _ why _ he pushed so hard or what had possessed Gladio to  _ join _ him, as he wasn’t arrogant enough to assume that Prompto felt the same, based on the actions of others. 

“We talk daily, thank you very much,” Ignis says, though the half-hearted glare tells him what he already knew: That's not what Noct was referring to. He wasn’t referring to asking him what he wanted for dinner; he didn’t _ mean  _ taking a moment to remind Prompto to take his medication or whipping him up something when he’d forgotten. “I know what you mean, Noct, but I think it's a touch inappropriate to—”

“Woah, I heard my name, what's up?”

“Iggy’s talking about you behind your back,” Noctis says, gesturing towards him with a lazy wave and his eyebrows arch upwards as he watches Prompto’s mouth fall open in what can only be described as mock offence, touching a hand to his chest with a familiar over dramatic flare.

“I beg your pardon, I did no such thing.”

“Then why, Igncmuffin, did I hear my name?” Prompto asks and it takes him a moment—just a single, unfortunate moment—before he realizes what Prompto’s referring to.  _ Gods _ , this is the man he so dearly loves, that he loves for reasons too numerous to count, that he  _ adores _ for things exactly like this. “I heard you, dude, don't lie. Unless you know someone more inappropriate than me.”

“Maybe he does,” Noctis suggests, but he can tell they're toying with him, playing a game not unlike  _ monkey in the middle _ that makes him wonder for a brief moment if Prompto wasn’t privy to the intentions of Gladiolus and Noctis. 

That was impossible, wasn’t it? He’d hid it rather well, hadn’t he?

“Sounds fake, dude. Nobody knows how to kill a mood better than me.”

Kill a mood, Prompto says, as if that weren't as far from the truth as possible. He's never known Prompto to do anything but set alight the room like he carries the sun on his back wherever he goes.

“So what's up?” Prompto says, turning his attention to him while wearing a smile that's frustrating in its beauty—a beauty that Prompto so often refuses to see.  _Astrals_ , how many times has he fought off the urge to emphasize that Prompto’s opinion of himself is  _ factually incorrect _ by all standards? 

“I… was just wondering if you'd like green soup curry tonight.”

It’s a poor distraction, if he’s ever been made to make one—and he’s fashioned plenty for the sole purpose of drawing attention away from his inappropriate interest in Prompto. Ignis sees Noctis’s displeasure in the way his head falls back, eyes settling on the ceiling as a quiet curse leaves his lips. 

That's to be expected. Ignis would be frustrated, too, were their roles reversed. 

“Oh, dude, really? You gotta  _ ask _ ?” Prompto says, laughter on his lips that eases the tension in Ignis’s shoulders, even if there was an edge of suspicion in his voice. Something about the mere  _ sound _ of it is calming and leaves a ghost of a smile on his face as he pushes his glasses up further on his nose. 

“I never know when you might get something of a wild hair.”

“Hell  _ yeah _ I want green soup curry, but, uh, what did I do to get my favorite dish? Gotta know so I can do it more often.”

The subtle upward tilt of his lips becomes more apparent, smile widening at Prompto’s incorrect assumption that he needed any kind of  _ reason  _ to spoil him with a meal he loved. In all honesty, he was being a touch biased, but there was nothing new about that. 

“Not at all. It’s simply your turn,” Ignis says, though it’s an obvious lie that he can only  _ pray _ that Prompto won’t catch, that the constant threat of peril during the day would distract him long enough to forget that they’d had  _ Noctis’s  _ favorite meal last night. Tonight was supposed to be his pick—and his pick was, more often than not, to lavish Prompto in the only way he feasibly could, given their situation.

“Seriously? Already? I thought tonight was your night?”   
  
_ Blast.  _

Ignis doesn’t miss the way Noct’s scowl morphs into a smirk and it’s a self-imposed challenge to not scold him for it in front of the others. It would certainly be his undoing, if he chose to. While Prompto played the part of a fool rather well, he was far above what little most gave him credit and he was certain to put two and two together if he acted out. 

Of course, that was assuming he didn’t  _ already _ know. 

That leaves him with precious few options and he’s forced to embrace the one he absolutely wishes he didn’t have to: He has to tell the truth. 

“As it stands, Prompto,” he says, licking dry lips and feeling as though his face were burning with color from the intensity of Prompto’s gaze. “I’d much rather you enjoy  _ your _ favorite.”

Violet blue eyes shift away from Ignis, searching the ground for a moment as if there were something of note in the rock beneath their feet besides markings they couldn’t make heads or tails of. 

“ _ Oh _ , um…” he starts, glancing up to match Ignis’s gaze, to flash a smile that extends from ear to ear with freckles hidden beneath the familiar bright red dusting of embarrassment. “Thanks, Iggy… Don’t think I did anything to earn it, but…”

“Nonsense. You stopped Noct from complaining this afternoon about the veggies I snuck into our meals the night before.”

There's a laugh that chimes like bells in the open air and it leaves Ignis’s heart feeling so full that he was reminded of the long held hope that his feelings weren’t as unrequited as he tried to convince himself they were. 

“Dude, I  _ shot _ him.”

This time, it’s Noct’s head that shoots up, mouth falling open as his eyebrows shoot up to hide behind his bangs as he glances between the both of them. When his eyes settle on Prompto, he says, “You said that was an MT!”

“Correction: Gladio made that claim. We simply decided to keep our mouths shut. The needs of the many, Your Highness.”

Noctis almost looks  _ cross _ the minute the words are out of his mouth. He’s almost  _ glaring  _ at Prompto in a way that Ignis knows will give away the minute Prompto flashes one of his familiar grins at him—ah, yes, there it is now.

Laughter fills the air as Noctis wrestles Prompto to the ground, to tickle him into submission for this act of treason. Later, he would no doubt find a more appropriate way to demand an apology for the friendly fire, but on this fine evening, Ignis was simply glad that Noctis had found offence in this revelation.

If nothing else, it meant he got away from telling Prompto how he felt.

At least for the moment.


End file.
